
SABBATH-SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY
5
Revised Version reads, "zeal
for
God," in verse 2, instead of
"zeal
of
God."
2.
"Establish their own righteousness."—
That is what
every one tries to do who does not know God, who has not by
revelation (Matt. 16:17) seen God, or who forgets His infinite
holiness. He who holds ever in view the righteousness of God,
will abhor himself and honor God. The gospel places the glory
of man in the dust and exalts Jesus Christ.
3.
"End of the law."—
The word "end" in this text means
aim
or
object,
as in James 5:11. The aim, or
object,
of the law
is to bring men to Christ. It shuts man in the prison-house of
sin with but one door, Christ. It, like a hard master, leads or
drives the sinner to Christ as the only source of righteousness.
Rom. 7:7, 24, 25; Gal. 3:23, 24. Then in Christ the righteous-
ness, the requirement, of the law is fulfilled in those who walk
after the Spirit. Rom. 8:4. Faith in Christ, we have learned,
establishes the law in the heart.
4.
Righteousness by faith
is personified and made to speak
for itself.
It
does not demand that man shall do great things by
which he will take glory to himself. Man is not to descend into
the deep, nor must he climb up to heaven; all he needs to do is
to yield himself, and believe in Christ Jesus, who has come down
to him. Thus it was in the days of Moses. They did not need
to climb up to the serpent, but "look and live." Thus it is now.
Jesus the Lord, the Saviour, has come down to us. Open the
heart, and let faith see Him there. And it is all in the word
which faith brings, with its cleansing power, within the heart.
5.
"Unto righteousness."—
There is much belief which
merely accepts facts and no more. Faith accepts righteousness,
reaches to it, makes it its own. The faith which stops short of
righteousness is a failure.
6.
"Their sound."—
The voice of God speaking through His
works; for the quotation is from Ps. 19:4. Sometimes He speaks
in dread majesty, sometimes in marvelous wisdom, sometimes in
the terrible tempest, in the soft-breathing night breezes, in the
mighty oak, in the tiny floweret, in all the wonders of the jeweled
dome above us. In a thousand different ways is proclaimed to
the thoughtful, longing heart the power, the wisdom, and the
love of God. There has always been light enough to lead to God,
and there is sufficient potency in one ray to save the soul who
receives and follows the light.
7.
"I
was found of them that sought Me not."—
All
through God's work with Israel, He desired to make them instru-
ments of salvation to the nations. He placed them in the center
of civilization, in the highway of the nations, that they might